Greetings Troublemakers... welcome to Trouble.
My name is not important.
It’s now been 50 years since the riots of 1968,
a decentralized series of explosive protests
that broke out across multiple countries around the world
and which, to this day, stand as a high-water mark
in the annals of revolutionary history.
But no commemoration of this milestone is complete
without acknowledging that '68 was,
at the end of the day,
a failed revolution.
And just as it was a year of inspiring popular protest,
it was also a year of intense political repression.
In the United States,
just as the civil rights and anti-war movements
were at their peaks,
three high-profile political assassinations occurred
over a span of two months,
claiming the lives of Martin Luther King Jr,
Bobby Hutton
and Robert Kennedy.
These killings helped to cement the shift
from a largely non-violent
and reformist civil rights movement
to the more militant and revolutionary
Black Power movement,
which in turn would soon fall prey
to the FBI's ruthless program
of covert assassination and sabotage
known as COINTELPRO.
In Mexico,
calls for an international boycott managed to
successfully block Apartheid South Africa's participation
in the 1968 Summer Olympics,
and a massive student uprising broke out,
which posed an existential challenge
to the ruling PRI government of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz.
The Mexican state's response to the students
was swift and brutal.
On October 2nd,
just ten days before the Olympic Games were set to begin,
the Mexican army opened fire on 10,000 student protestors
in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas,
in what became known as the Tlatelolco massacre.
Between 300-400 people were killed,
and over 1,500 student organizers arrested
in a wide-ranging crackdown by security forces
that sent shock waves throughout Mexican society
that resonate to this very day.
But while repression ultimately cut short
the revolutionary promise of 1968,
it could never extinguish the desire for freedom
that was its initial spark.
This torch has since been taken up
by new generations of restless youth,
who have used their position as students
to issue calls for a radical transformation of society.
Over the next thirty minutes,
we'll showcase contemporary examples of student struggles
from Mexico, South Africa and the United States,
and speak with current and former student organizers
as they share their experiences of
taking over their campuses,
disrupting the status quo…
and making a whole lot of trouble.
In this country, only 4 out of 10
from each generation can get into university.
There haven’t been public universities created
since the 70’s,
when the UAM (Metropolitan Autonomous University) was created,
and then in 2001, the Autonomous University of Mexico City (UNAM).
None of them have the capacity to take in
more than 5000 students a year; so it’s an elite.
And in this country, with all the poverty,
with all the displacement, who gets into university?
The demand that made the student movement take off
was the regulation of payments
that was implemented in the UNAM.
It intended to establish quotas
to be able to study at the university.
It contemplated the increase of educational services
- for example the study of languages,
the use of laboratories, the use of libraries -
that for all of us who participated in that movement
meant the beginning of the privatization of the university.
And then once the movement exploded,
inside the student organization that we formed,
which was the CGH, we added another 5 demands.
What happened in many schools was that as soon
as the proposed amendment to the regulation came out,
they formed assemblies.
In many cases, or in each school,
they saw that there’s an amendment
to the regulation and whatnot, and they begin to plan.
The only option we had to try to stop the increase in fees
was to paralyze the university.
This is where some older comrades
from the UNAM joined the fray,
and they brought the experience that we did not have.
And through discussions with these comrades
the idea of ​​striking began to form,
as well as the way we were going to do it;
and a date was set.
And that’s where I think the Zapatistas were key as well.
The EZLN, like the commanders,
issued a communiqué
which announced the support of the Zapatistas,
and called on all the people that supported them
to also support the student movement.
On the day that we launched the strike,
which was the night of the 19th of April,
more than half of the university population
was in favour of the strike.
And we were here,
ready to stay in the facilities
so that classes couldn't be held,
and so that the strike could begin.
On the 30th of April, during the strike,
the university halls were overflowing
with workshops, kids, and strikers.
First, (the strike) went through an absolute criminalization.
The media campaign was brutal.
Like, it really was, and we didn’t have the resources
that we have now like Facebook, Twitter
- that allow you to access the masses.
The way to share what was going was to go to the metro.
Going with a brigade, for me, was the coolest,
to like go to inform people why we were there,
and most importantly,
gauge just how much the people supported you.
There was support,
but that support was also mostly moral support,
or verbally like “yes, I stand with you”.
We also didn’t have a proposal of what they could do.
Of how they could truly support us
and strengthen the movement.
I believe that the movement underwent
a complete offensive of the state.
Yes, they used all the resources of the Mexican state
to attack the student movement.
There were comrades who were even disappeared.
And 9 months later, the UNAM as an institution
decides to host a consultation.
And they put in De La Fuente as Rector.
And De La Fuente seemed like a rector
who wanted to begin a dialogue.
He began to organize a consultation,
in which he included these proposals
to be voted by the university community:
the general payment regulations will be annulled;
we will organize a congress;
and we propose to end the strike.
De La Fuente made this seem like a sensible proposal.
'The movement started with the quotas,
I am proposing that we are going to eliminate them.
The movement asked for a congress. I am proposing that.
We are going to make it happen. What else do you want?'
And then comes the end of this mastermind move
that the rectory and the government made
- which was to invade, with paid thugs,
the Number 3 Preparatory.
There were only 5 colleagues there
resisting and guarding the facilities,
and this proved to be a provocation for the CGH.
When all the comrades who were
in the other facilities of the UNAM learned about it,
our reaction was to go to rescue The Number 3.
Many of us, members of the CGH, arrived.
There was an exchange of blows,
of throwing objects against these people
who were there invading the school.
The media replays these scenes of violence,
and shows it to the population,
and the first contingent of
the Preventive Federal Police arrives
- without weapons.
They enter, they detain, and in less than 72 hours
we're in prison accused of terrorism,
criminal association, sabotage, property damage,
aggravated robbery, riot, attacks on communication channels…
so it was a very violent initial detention.
And that was the beginning
that opened things up to where we are now,
in terms of violence towards women for example.
The type of brutality, how we were attacked…
I mean, a comrade ended up with a pelvic fracture
from a blow.
In other words, now it is the systematic practice
towards the bodies of women in this type of detention.
And at that moment, De La Fuente calls us to a dialogue,
but now under his conditions.
‘You’re going to appoint 10 representatives.
We are going to meet in such and such place,
without radio, without television, without the media.
And what we are going to negotiate
is the end of the strike.'
The representatives who attended this meeting
did not accept that deal.
There, they knew well that the most active
movement organizers were going to be assembled,
and what they decided to do was send a very large group
of unarmed policemen.
And this worked very well,
because before the media,
the force was used in a rational way,
against a ‘rebellious, aimless movement’
- and that was accepted by the population
in quite a drastic manner.
Finally, on February 6, there was
a full-scale military operation
- with helicopters, tanks -
that overtakes all of the university facilities.
This did not provoke any kind of outbreak, or mobilization.
And therefore I believe that the government of Cedillo
and De La Fuente resolved the conflict at a very low cost.
The 1960s are often looked back on
as a golden age of student activism in the United States,
with ground zero being the Berkeley campus
of the University of California.
As the storied home of the Free Speech movement,
a campaign of sit-ins and mass rallies
that by 1965 had won students the right
to hold explicitly political events on campus,
UC Berkeley was an important point of convergence
for the Civil Rights, feminist, environmentalist
and anti-war movements that eventually coalesced
into the so-called New Left.
As part of the larger University of California network,
UC Berkeley is a publicly-funded institution.
For most of its existence,
this meant that students didn't have to pay tuition fees.
Beginning in the late 60's,
however, that began to change,
as a growing popular resentment
towards hippies and godless communists
spurred a conservative voter backlash,
which helped propel Ronald Reagan
to the Governorship of California.
And all of it began the first time
some of you who know better,
and are old enough to know better,
let young people think
that they had the right
to choose the laws they would obey
as long as they were doing it in the name of social protest.
One year after sending in the National Guard
to violently crush Berkeley students in 1969,
Reagan succeeded in imposing tuition fees
across the nine campuses of the University of California.
In the decades that have followed,
tuition costs have shot up by nearly 10,000 percent.
But despite the effects that these changes have had
on the university's demographics,
UC Berkeley continues to occupy
an important role in American politics
as a primary site of student radicalism.
Four decades after Reagan sent in the army to crush dissent,
students at UC Berkeley participated in a series
of statewide university occupations,
carried out under the banner Occupy Everything.
This is Berkeley on Telegraph. That’s how we do it.
Some of the motivating factors
for the student movement of 2009 to 2010
really were unfortunately based on the budget cuts
in the state of California to public higher education.
Now this actually sprawled across
all different sectors of the education community.
So after the financial crisis in 2007-2008,
a lot of states were forced to implement austerity programs
cutting public spending and laying off state employees.
Not only were student tuition fees
suggested to be increased, but also
there were forced faculty and staff furlough days.
So this actually did help us ultimately in the movement
because it affected so many different aspects
of the campus community
that we were able to bind together and work together.
UC’s system in particular had a large budget deficit
and so administrators resorted to tuition hikes
to make up for the budget shortfall.
But that was only half the story.
As it was discovered later
the UC administration had resorted to
taking out bonds for construction projects
to generate revenue.
And in this instance,
student tuition was closely tied
to the bond ratings of the UCs.
Increasing student tuition was a signal to
credit rating agencies that the UC
could pay back their bonds
and thus secure more funding.
This ended up being one of the pivots
for the student movement as a whole;
the relationship between the university
and financial capital
- higher education and Wall Street.
So the story really does begin in early May,
where the proposed tuition fee increases were made
by the UC regents as well as the CSU trustees.
Over the summer,
of course student organizing is quite difficult
... but there were coalitions of students, staff,
and faculty that had been formed in late spring
that were in fact meeting and trying to gain momentum
to prepare for the very beginning
of the fall semester in 2009.
There were a series of smaller actions
and coordination among students at UC
and Cal State campuses
which pretty much set the tone for the months to come:
study-ins, sit-ins, and occupations of school spaces.
We were influenced by the occupations
specifically at the New School,
where the tactic of occupation itself
was becoming popularized.
Occupations were seen as a viable tactic
and was a way to bypass
the routines of marches and rallies.
This action is in solidarity with occupations
that have occurred so far at UC Davis, UCLA,
UC Santa Cruz, SF State.
Using the tactic of occupation
really did mark a departure
from the typical tactics
known and seen in the student movement.
So the occupations were a major contrast to
marches and rallies, which,
you know, are pretty routine.
Everyone gets together for a few hours,
then they go home.
In the occupations, people could meet each other
and have longer conversations.
And more importantly, there was a continuous
and visible presence of people
that made the student movement feel more tangible.
Not just a series of actions,
but also a materially enduring place.
It took on more of a direct action approach
at trying to take space.
This is something that allowed us to
try to manifest what we were actually dreaming of.
As opposed to simply asking that
the "authorities that be" give us what we want.
This really gave us a huge motivation
and showed the students that they had great power.
We have a 32% fee increase
that we want immediately repealed.
But you know what?
We want a whole lot more than that.
We want public education that is free!
So in mid-November
there was a three-day strike in response to
the UC administrators increasing the tuition by 32%.
There was an occupation at UC Santa Cruz,
while at UC Berkeley there was a march
attended by well over several thousand people.
Also walk-outs and sit-ins at various
Cal States in the Bay Area.
November 19th UCSC, UC Davis, and UCLA
occupied administrative buildings.
And on November 20th, Wheeler Hall,
at UC Berkeley was occupied
with clashes with police
and other Cal States has sit-ins.
From that point forward
there was a series of smaller actions,
marches to the chancellor’s house,
sit-ins, more occupations
happening at the UCs and other Cal States.
During that time there was a lot of networking
among students and militants
and this was a period of time where a lot of the students
from different campuses were able to
kind of coordinate and talk about what to do next.
The students who were participating
in the occupation movement faced repression
from both the state and the university.
University administrators were caught off guard
by the occupations and seemed kind of
unsure as to what to do.
But as the movement continued,
the UC administration resorted to calling in the police
both from on and off campus.
Guys they’re at this door!
This is the police department, unlock the door!
And of course this is trying to prevent students
from participating in any student activities.
Definitely the anarchists focused more on trying to
bring the issues outside of just the university campuses.
We were trying to relate this struggle now
to problems and issues with capitalism
and class struggle... because it is entirely related.
In the Global North,
the struggle against the colonial Apartheid regime
in so-called South Africa is often presented
as a feel-good example of the merits
of pursuing a patient strategy of non-violence,
and the effectiveness of international solidarity
and boycott campaigns.
When addressing seemingly intractable conflicts,
such as the decades-long Palestinian resistance
to Israeli occupation,
Western liberals are fond of lamenting
the lack of a so-called “Nelson Mandela figure”
who could unite divided populations
and galvanize world opinion behind a peaceful
and dignified demand for national self-determination.
Not only does this wholesome and incredibly racist narrative
ignore the fact that Mandela himself
was an active proponent of armed struggle,
There are many people who feel
that it is useless and futile
for us to continue talking peace and non-violence
against a government whose reply
is only savage attacks.
but it also hides the essential role
that militant youth movements played
in toppling the Apartheid regime,
and the important role
that struggles around education
played in this process.
One of the catalysing events
that marked a turning point
in the struggle against Apartheid
took place on June 16th, 1976,
when 10,000 high school students
marched in Soweto
to protest the forced introduction of Afrikaner language
into their school curriculum.
The state's response was to open fire
on the crowd of children,
killing at least 176,
and wounding over a thousand.
In the wake of this tragedy,
many youth joined the armed wing
of the African National Congress, or ANC,
who eventually assumed power
following open elections in 1994.
Yet the rosy picture of post-Apartheid South Africa
also ignores the reality that
despite more than two decades of ANC rule,
the country still possesses the highest rates
of inequality in the world,
with an overwhelming majority of the nation's wealth
remaining in the hands of white settlers.
In 2015, a struggle began to take shape
demanding a long-overdue reckoning
of the country's colonial legacy.
Beginning with a symbolic protest
at the University of Cape Town
against the statue of South Africa's colonial founder,
Cecil Rhodes,
the movement quickly spread across the country,
and has since taken up militant calls
for free, decolonized education.
The university struggle
and the university space is a microcosm
of the struggle and the problems
within broader society.
And so, the struggles that we have at the university
- whether it be economic issues around fees,
the political issues around liberation and injustice, etc -
that feed into the broader discussion about
where we are as a country in South Africa post-1994.
And I would say we currently exist in a post-Apartheid,
apartheid South Africa
where there is many continued injustices
and we still are fighting for liberation and equality.
The statue at the University of Cape Town,
one of Africa’s top academic institutions,
has been covered up for the past few weeks.
As both white and Black students regularly marched past
with the hashtag #RhodesMustFall placards
calling for its removal.
Prior to 2015, there had been a lot of talk
around how young people in South Africa are apathetic,
apolitical, they aren’t engaged citizens etc,
all of those things.
Because of the history that young people
have played in South Africa, like 1976,
and the youth movements of 1968,
SASO and the Black Consciousness movement
were largely spearheaded by young people.
In a historical sense, there is this,
I guess historic role, or obligation in some sense,
or duty that young people have played
in shaping the national destiny
of South African politics.
And so after 1994 there was a very sharp decline
of youth participation in critiquing government policies,
in critiquing, you know, the neoliberal settlement,
against colonialism,
against undoing all those historic injustices of the past.
So, the significance of Rhodes Must Fall
was that it re-energized that aspect of youth involvement.
So Rhodes Must Fall was a decolonial student movement
that formed that the beginning of 2015
in response to structural and institutional racism
at the university, and in society.
And structural and institutional patriarchy
and just general inequality that Black students,
workers, and staff were facing at the university.
It’s based on three pillars,
ideological pillars of Black Consciousness,
Black radical feminism through intersectionality,
and pan-Africanism.
In 2015 there was a campaign to remove the statue
of Cecil John Rhodes
which was located here on campus.
So that sparked, it was like a catalyst,
the symbolic act of the fall of the statue.
I think that's where one can begin to trace ideas
of what fallism is.
The relationship between Rhodes Must Fall
and Fees Must Fall,
I think one must understand Rhodes Must Fall
as a catalytic moment
and then Fees Must Fall as a subsequent action
of that initial event that happened.
Let go of her!
Leave me alone!
I think fallism applies broadly as an arsenal
or a canon of protest tactics.
In the sense of disruptions, shutdowns, occupations.
Those were some of the defining features
of protest movements in 2015 and early 2016
which came to characterize fallism.
Disrupting the space so that you can highlight
some of the injustices which exist.
But not only around specific occasions,
but as a daily thing.
Rhodes Must Fall and then Fees Must Fall
was organized as a non-partisan student movement,
on a flat structure,
where there was no, you know, recognized leadership.
Because I think one of the issues that we had had
in previous organizations and organizing
was that the kind of hierarchical structure
didn’t always work and it caused a lot of factionalism
and, you know... party politics.
What would happen was that,
organization was basically set-up
to coordinate different tasks.
The public in particular was very curious about
how the movement was organized
because there was this question of
'who do you hold accountable?'
Initially it was a tactic,
especially in the early days of the movement, to say:
'we don’t have any leaders.'
So that if you want to victimize someone in particular,
it would be harder for the authorities to do that.
From my thinking it was both a strategic
and ideological decision.
We wanted to avoid the pitfalls
of having like one or two iconic leaders
and then you know, everything kind of
is hinged around them.
So we can say we are a flat structure
in trying to embody this ideal democratic structure
of participation,
where everyone's advice has got equal weight
and people’s politics are given equal room
to be expressed in a space.
The idea of, you know, Mandela’s rainbowism
and this rainbow nation mythology that exists
where, you know, we are all 'kumbaya',
'hold hands', 'we are one' type of thing does not exist.
And the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
that existed in this country
didn’t do anything to really solve
the material reasons for why
there is this inequality and deep-seated anger
and hurt and pain caused
by colonialism and Apartheid.
State education systems,
and particularly colleges and universities,
play a vital role in the reproduction of social control.
Not only are they the physical sites
where millions of future workers are trained
to participate in the capitalist economy, generally,
but increasingly these institutions serve
as corporate incubators,
providing cheap labour
and cutting edge research and development facilities
for the IT, Nanotech, genetics, engineering,
extraction and weapons manufacturing industries.
As a result,
students occupy a uniquely strategic choke point
in the maintenance and development
of the global economy.
But beyond their potential utility
as atomized cogs in the capitalist machine,
when students come together around shared demands,
they can also serve as a catalysing spark
for broader movements seeking wide-ranging social change.
Youth movements can inject a well-needed shot
of idealism, dynamism, and militancy
into more long-standing and complacent social movements
that may otherwise remained focused
on defending past gains,
and reliant on outdated tactics and strategies.
Before a new world can be built
... the old one must be torn down.
The student movement of 2009
was so significant to me personally.
Prior to this movement I wasn’t really an anarchist
or even politically active,
so this movement really was something
that radicalized me.
For many students,
the student movement was not only about
the socio-economic conditions
they were confronting,
but also about the possibilities
of a different kind of future.
So there was a positive vision
behind this movement as well.
Because the students are young people,
there's a lot of growing and growth
that still needs to happen.
People still are finding themselves, or whatever.
But that becomes even more accentuated in that space.
Which often tends to be like
a very tense, emotionally-charged space.
I understands that some radicals
may view students with a bit of suspicion.
While students occupy an ambiguous social position
since the university maintains and reproduces
the division of intellectual and manual work.
I think it’s still important for radicals
to maintain a presence on campuses
in some kind of way.
Whether it’s through more postering campaigns,
or tabling literature,
or setting up events that explicitly address
alternatives to capitalism,
there needs to be some sort of continuous
and visible presence on campuses
that are able to make counter messages clear.
In addition to having organizing spaces
that are specifically for anarchists
and anti-authoritarians,
we really need to work in coalition
with other members of the student body,
faculty, and staff
- ultimately to gain widespread support.
We need to learn how to work
and mobilize within our communities
and how to build consistently throughout the year
so that we’re not just protesting
at a particular time of the year.
But that we’re consistently working
and building the movement.
I think popular education was
significantly under-emphasized in the movement space.
Especially in the last few years
it has lead to a significantly impoverished articulation
of what the demands are.
It would be nice to build character
which can withstand some of those trappings
and pitfalls in particular.
Which tend to see movements disintegrating.
I think there’s value in just
trying to always be consistent.
To answer what it is
you’re committing yourself to.
I believe that the occupations carried out
in the student movement really expanded
the vocabulary of what is possible
in terms of direct action.
And now direct action tactics are
actually much more accepted on university campuses
than they once were.
And this happened as a gradual process
but I believe that the students and faculty
and staff really did see the value
in taking action themselves.
I know that there is risk involved.
But you never gain anything
without a little bit of sacrifice.
The UC campuses have continued
with the legacy of militant direct action.
Recent confrontations with Milo and the Alt Right
are definitely a part of this legacy.
Some of the tactics that we used to deploy
- some of those tactics ended up becoming signs
and tactics for people in the movement,
so it reached a point that you couldn’t critique.
I think that you also have to learn when to face the state.
And when to not.
You have to learn that... because they broke us.
I really think that the rupture occurred
under the logic of the state,
which relies on the burn-out of social movements.
Like, the co-optation didn’t work, or worked afterwards,
the repression didn’t either
... but we’re going to burn them out.
When the state and the university
becomes increasingly authoritarian and repressive,
instead of looking out at what the issues are
that are causing these things, we look inward.
And so I would say that too much of an inward focus
can really make the movement
very small and very difficult.
We need to set out a vision
that's able to speak to
what the society is unable to provide,
and not just be against some issue or another.
If, as a student,
as a person who has university education,
you want to make social changes - political changes -
you have to do them concretely.
Bring your knowledge,
activate yourself with other people
to generate productive projects.
Educational projects that improve conditions for people,
even if it’s on a very small scale. But make it real.
Something concrete.
And not so abstract, like all this around generating
a massive movement with huge masses
that are going to bring down a regime.
We need to give support to other countries
the world is not focusing on.
The narrative is just around what’s happening
in the United States of America
when there are many struggles across the world
that we need to focus on and need to learn from.
And so what I would encourage is that we meet
as young people
- as students from these student movements.
So that we can organize together and build together.
Because that’s the only way we are going to defeat
a white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal,
and ableist system.
While students have historically served
as active participants
in broader struggles for social change,
it's important to remember that
there's nothing inherently revolutionary about them.
University campuses can just as easily serve
as the breeding grounds for fascism
and other toxic forms of political reaction.
This threat is particularly acute today,
from campuses across the United States,
where alt-right and white nationalist groups
are aggressively targeting students
for recruitment and indoctrination,
to those in China,
where organized student groups form
an important bulwark of an emergent
hyper-nationalist state ethos.
These spaces are contested territories,
meaning that revolutionaries need to actively engage
and organize with their peers in order to build movements
capable of waging effective resistance.
So at this point,
we’d like to remind you that Trouble is
intended to be watched in groups,
and to be used as a resource to promote discussion
and collective organizing.
Are you a student that's interested in
carrying out revolutionary anti-capitalist organizing
in your university or college campus,
or even in your high school?
Consider getting together with some comrades,
organizing a screening of this film,
and discussing a strategy
for where you might get started.
Interested in running regular screenings of Trouble
at your campus, infoshop, community center,
or even just at home with friends?
Become a Trouble-Maker!
For 10 bucks a month,
we’ll hook you up with an advanced copy of the show,
and a screening kit featuring additional resources
and some questions you can use to get a discussion going.
If you can’t afford to support us financially,
no worries!
You can stream and/or download all our content
for free off our website:
If you’ve got any suggestions for show topics,
or just want to get in touch, drop us a line at:
In case you missed it,
we're pleased to announce the return of the Stimulator
with his brand new show: The Fuckin' News.
If you haven't checked out his pilot episode,
you can find it on our website,
along with past episodes of
It's the End of the World as We Know it And I Feel Fine, at:
This episode would not have been possible
without the generous support of Jose,
Simone, Tannie and Chloe.
Now get out there, and make some trouble!